Big Brother Canada 6 Finale Review

Big Brother Canada 6 has found its winner – and it’s probably not the person you expected to win the prize. A floater, in all sense of the word, won over the jury and cleaned house by a 6-1 vote. After weeks of the showmance dominating and picking off players one-by-one, someone finally toppled their kingdom and made their way to the finals. Their chances of making that a possibility were slim, but the odds were definitely in her favor. Law student Paras defeated the competition beast Kaela after a lucky string of challenge wins.

The final week of a season slows the game down to focus solely on challenge wins and last minute deals. By the time of Final 4, these houseguests have 95% solidified, which players they want to take to the Final 3, and potentially to the final vote. Shaking up the house and swaying someone over to your side is almost next to impossible. Based on the events we saw from the episodes and the feeds: Will wanted Derek and Paras, Derek wanted Will and Kaela, Kaela wanted Derek and Paras, and Paras wanted Will and Kaela. The house was evenly split, so it came down to who won the needed Head of Household and Power of Veto competitions.

Paras and Kaela ultimately shaped the game through their challenge wins. Paras solidified her spot in the next round by winning HOH, but it was Kaela who set the tone with the POV. The Final 4 POV is possibly the most important competition to play heading into the final episode; this power sets the tone as it’s the only vote/guarantee to determine who will be moving into the end. The choice of doing a blindfolded maze for the final POV was a great idea; it amped up the drama and made it more difficult for these houseguests to work toward the prize. Plus, having the evicted houseguests supply clues added a new layer to the game – this game absolutely needs to return in a future season.

Kaela made the right choice by evicting Will. Regardless of whatever he said, he was never going to take Kaela to the Final 2, and if given the opportunity, he would’ve cut her at Final 4 if he had won. Her odds were much better having her showmance and her closest ally at her side heading into the finals. Will was acting like a child because he didn’t get his way. He never won a challenge, he was rude to people, and he wasn’t strategic – Will would’ve been the worst option from the four to win Big Brother Canada 6. If he had not thrown the POV in the previous week, his odds would’ve been better with Paras, Maddy and Derek around.

Having all the previous Big Brother Canada winners return to coach the Final 3 houseguests was an interesting surprise. Each of the past winners all had different strategies that secured them the win, like Jon with his personality or Kevin with his strategy. This type of coaching needs to return in future seasons, even in Big Brother US, because it’s one of the contributing factors that helped Paras seal the win. The group gave her solid advice about how to use her gameplay to her advantage and because she was the most receptive to it, their words had an effect. Derek didn’t utilize their advice at all, but Kaela was the most shocking.

Why did none of the winners warn her of her aggressive and unlikable attitude? Kaela came off rude and overly confident to a lot of the winners. If Jillian (the winner of Big Brother Canada 1) was on the jury, Kaela would’ve lost her vote due to her cold attitude when Jillian said she would’ve taken Emmett to the finals in her season. Just because Kaela was considering cutting her showmance here, she shouldn’t have faulted someone else for thinking of a different path. This moment was another sign that Kaela’s approach in her upcoming speech and answers could prove to be a problem.

The three-part final Head of Household competitions were beautiful! Big Brother Canada always goes over and above with their final concepts to end on a high note. The first round with crossing the River Styx was the perfect tie-in for their “Heaven and Hell” theme. Forcing the houseguest to balance coins and pull themselves across rivers required a lot of energy and precision – Paras earned her win. The second round was pretty simple with its tower of blocks, but the third/final competition had the best effect of the night.

Before the “A or B” game, Big Brother aired a footage reel featuring the jury members lashing out at the final houseguests. This video was a great addition to the night as it set the tone and made the competition more intense than it actually was. Kudos to the editors for choosing this feature!

Paras winning the game over Kaela wasn’t shocking when you look at it in hindsight. Kaela had a bad social game; it was obvious weeks ago during her HOH reign when Ryan was evicted and it was perfectly clear during her coaching with the winners. People were leaving the house upset over the moves that the showmance was making and the jury members were comparing notes when they started coming together. Even though Kaela played the best overall game (strategy and competition), she underestimated the social aspect of it. You have to make people like you. You have to make people on the jury WANT to vote for you. Calling jury members emotional cry babies or smirking at their loss were not the best moves to make. She created a bigger hurdle to climb over when it came time for the votes.

In the case of Paras, the jury was keener to vote for an underdog than the house queen. Sure, winning the last few competitions helped Paras’s game tremendously, but it was the social game that pushed it over the edge. During Big Brother Canada 6, Paras was in a lot of conversations and alliances – everyone looked to her like their little sister and they wanted to work with her. We’re talking about the person who, after a lot of boy drama involving Jesse, became real friends with Olivia. That is an accomplishment all on its own. Paras getting a sweep of an angry jury against “Daela” wasn’t surprising in the end.

Big Brother Canada 6 was a fun season that raised the drama with a great cast. While not everyone stepped up to the table, the 16 houseguests were thoroughly enjoyable and played the game at some point. A lot of the issues stemmed from the production team itself with poor episode edits, terrible management of the live feeds, and strange uses of twists. If all of those issues are fixed, Big Brother Canada can get back on track to be the stellar series it once was. Hopefully the series doesn’t go back on hiatus as this edition was a success and one of its best. Come on, Global TV!